>Larry
>
>I don't disagree with anything you say. My points are simply that
>
>1) We speak quicker than we write
>2) If speech is an option, most prefer it
>3) Clinicians prefer to dictate
>4) New pdas have dictaphones built in. You can select patients and dictate a note for your secretary then download via wireless or cradle. This is akin to (and better than) digital dictation- itself a "breakthrough" technology in the last few years.
>
>I agree with you re screens; I delayed almost to the point of stupidity in buying a notebook so I'd get a PIII and 15" screen. I bought one of the firsr Dell Inspirons with that configuration. BUT there is no way I'd lug it around with me on a ward round or in a plaster room. The iPAQ: sure I carry it around. So the iPAQ is already ahead.
>
>Re speech to text: I've written papers on why it will not work in hospitals, so we agree. But you can dictate into a pda in the car or in the theatre tea room. It works. I like that!
>
>I've not said that the pda will wipe out the PC across the board so I don't want to argue that. I've said there *are* industries where it is going to take the PC's place. Hospital medicine is one. surgeons who refuse to touch a PC WILL dictate into a pda and it is a short step from there to "lessee, if I click that there... wow! There's the histology".
>
>Why should this be a problem for anybody? VFP makes a "bl**dy marvelous" server side manager for such apps. The pda and something like WW can communicate using existing file-based communication. I love it- faster, cheaper than ado-based competitors who are fiddling with service packs (already!).
>
>I'm interested in the work for nurses. We could talk profitably on this point. Are you a contractor?
>
>Regards
>
>JR

"Bloody" is a bad word!? (i.e. profanity)